Saturday, August 13, 2011

Last week the little Ford Ranger began to die. Oh it wasn't really surprising. We've known for sometime that its arthritis was masking some deeper systemic problems and that the motor needed a triple bypass, but a transplant was out of the question? Yes, we knew that sooner or later, we'd have to break down and buy another vehicle. But the pick-up was paid for. That's huge. That means liability insurance only, and even being able to use garage space for projects instead of parking both vehicles under the shelter of the roof. Unfortunately, it also means trips to the City, wondering if the road beneath you is going to shake your fillings out. Anyway. Last week the pickup had to be put into the shop while Turtle was at a convention in Norman. After he paid for new tie-rods and other wheel/frame/drum related issues, the engine began to shut down at inconvenient spots on the interstate. We had held on long enough.

When he got home, Turtle started looking for another vehicle. True, the Ranger still runs, and we can use it for hauling trash to the dump or old boats to the dock, but taking parishioners to the hospital, or other ministers to sectional meetings requires a more reliable transportation mode. In short, he found a car. It's not a new car, but it doesn't have too many miles on it to be reliable, and, more importantly, it won't have really large payments. Our bank looked up our credit record and discovered that my car has only one more payment before it's paid off completely.

My first reaction was,
"Oh great. Just get one car paid off and immediately begin payments on another." Then I thought about it again and adjusted my attitude. It would have been too much to be making two car payments every month, so God saw that the old pick-up lasted, and Turtle was patient enough to wait until my car was completely paid off. That's worth celebrating.